Scouring and polishing device and method of producing same



Jan. 22, 1963 J. A. CAMERON SCOURING AND POLISHING DEVICE AND METHOD 0F PRODUCING SAME 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Feb. 9, 1959 INVENTOR.

BY John A. Cameron FIG Jan. 22, 1963 J. A. CAMERON SCOURING AND POLISHING DEVICE AND METHOD OF PRODUCING SAME 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Feb. 9, 1959 uczumatoo uQmTPCE 3 3 32m 3 m wdE INVENTOR.

BY John A Cameron United States Patent Gfifice A 3,074,099 Patented Jan. 22, 1963 3,074,059 SCOURING AND PDLISHE G DEVICE AND METHGD F PRQDUUNG SAME John A. Cameron, Evanston, Ill, asslgnor to General Foods Corporation, White Plains, N.Y., a corporation of Delaware Filed Feb. 9, 1959, Ser. No. 792,145 6 Claims. (Cl. 15-5(l6) This invention relates to a novel cleansing abrasive and polishing article and the method of producing the same. In particular the invention is concerned with a disposable scouring device employing metal wool filaments and having a saponaceous composition incorporated therein.

Metal wool, for example, so-called steel wool, has gained wide acceptance for household scouring of such articles as pots and pans. Metal wool has become well understood in the art as meaning a matted or felted mass of intertwined elongated filaments which are more or less continuous. By virtue of the continuou manner in which this felted mass is produced commercially for use in scouring devices, its filaments, though intertwined and changing in direction, extend in a single mean direction generally coinciding with the length of the metal wool or ribbon. It has also become customary to incorporate into the steel wool some form of soap which serves therein as a lubricant as well as a detergent.

While such steel Wool pads are intended for repeated use, they do suifer after such repeated use from corrosion, retention of food particles and undesirable bacteria build-up. Hence, such articles are inclined to become foul and ill-smelling and have an unpleasant appearance in the kitchen. It would be desirable to provide a scouring device which offers the scouring effect of metal Wool filaments having some form of soap or saponaceous composition incorporated therein and yet which is adaptable to a single use such that it is disposable. In this connection the term soap or saponaceous composition is intended to embrace not only the salts of one or more of the higher fatty acids with an alkali or metal but also the newer detergents, some of which are not salts of fatty acids; e.g., those based on sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate, sulfonated fatty acid amides and the like. The cost of such a disposable scouring device would be a paramount factor in its success. The article should employ a minimum amount of matted metal wool filaments and yet have a highly effective scouring action. Soap should be incorporated in the matted metal wool in such a manner as to offer the highest degree of lubrication and detergent action, thereby endowing the matted metal wool filaments with the highest degree of 50011- ing and polishing effect possible. in addition, the soap in combination with the matted metal wool filaments should be stationed on a suitable backing sheet in such a manner as to reduce the extent of contact of the hands of the user with the abrasive matted metal wool filaments and ofier a structural support to the relatively small amount of metal wool present. A thoroughly practical structure of this kind capable of high quantity production in a continuous manner has eluded the prior art as evidenced by the lack of any notable commercial success with previous disposable single-use scouring devices.

According to the present invention a scouring device is provided which satisfies the aforementioned and other objects and comprises a backing sheet and a layer of ribbon of matted metal wool filaments, e.g., steel wool. The metal filaments in this layer are formed into undulations referred to herein as peaks and valleys, which present an uneven abrading surface. These peaks and valleys can take any one of a number of forms such as straight or sinusoidal corrugations or intersecting corrugations. The

undulating matted metal wool filaments, although they are intertwined and felted, generally extend in one mean direction and the peaks and valleys of the corrugations or other similar non-uniform cross-sections for the layer or ribbon of matted metal wool filaments preferably extend in a direction transverse to the mean direction of the mass of matted wool filaments.

The mat of steel wool filament is laminated to a backing sheet which is preferably composed of wet strength paper although any thin flexible sheet material for backing may be employed such as woven fabrics, metal foils, plastic sheet material and like backing articles which offer substance to the scouring device and at the same time offer protection to the hands of the user and structural strength to the product. The layer of matted metal wool filaments is bonded to the backing sheets by means of a flexible moisture resistant water insoluble adhesive composition, typically one containing a polymerized olefin like polyethylene.

A soap foam is incorporated into this layer of metal wool so that it occupies the valleys therein; the soap foam is later dried so as to at least partially fill the interstitial voids between the mat of filaments bonded to the backing sheet.

The scouring device of the resent invention is preferably made by applying the foregoing moisture resistant adhesive composition to an endless sheet of wet strength paper. A ribbon of matted metal wool filaments of the aforestated character is passed between a pair of oppositely rotating corrugating rolls or any other filament deforming means capable of converting the more or less straight filaments into undulating peaks and valleys. T ereafter, the corrugated matted metal wool is passed into contact with the coated backing sheet where the filament portions in the valleys together with other filament portions are sufficiently immersed in the moisture resistant adhesive composition to bond the filaments thereto; preferably bonding of the filaments is assured by passing the layer of matted metal wool and the backing sheet between a compression roll and one or" the corrugating rolls.

Thereafter a soap foam is applied in a continuous manner to the wool face to the united backin sheet and matted metal wool so that the foam occupies the valleys in the matted metal wool layer. By virtue of the porous or foraminous condition of the bonded metal filaments any residual oap foam overlying the ridges or peaks can be driven into the interstitial voids between the bonded filaments by the pressure of a suitable doctoring blade or like apparatus. Thereafter, the soap-impregnated and bonded metal wool filaments are introduced into a drying chamber.

The invention will now be illustrated more fully in the accompanying drawings wherein:

:FIG. 1 is a view in perspective of one form of the invention;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of the securing sur face of the article in FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line 3-3 in FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 and FIG. 5 are modified scouring surfaces embodying the invention; and

FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are side and top plan views diagrammatically illustrating one method for manufacturing the article of FIGS. 1-3.

Referring to FIGS. 1-3, the preferred form of disposable scouring pad, the pad comprises a paper backing sheet 10 and a layer of steel wool filaments 12 bonded to the backing sheet through intermediation of a moisture resistant and water insoluble adhesive 14. The layer 12 is composed of a series of intertwined and matted filaments which extend generally in one mean direction.

I a roll 42 of backing sheet material thereon.

3 Straight corrugations 16 in layer 12 extend in a direction transverse to the length of the filaments and the individual filaments undulate so as to define a series of peaks 18 and valleys 20.

A dried soap foam identified by the accumulations noted on the scouring surface of the pad-in FIG. 2 and occupying the reservoirs in valleys 2t} defined between alternate peaks 18 is deposited in the areas designated at 22. The dry soap foam also occupies the interstitial space between filaments bonded to the backing sheet.

The backing sheet is preferably made of a Wet-strength paper although plies of other compositions may also be employed. The backing sheet preferably has a foldable handle formed therein by portions 24 and 26 which are folded, juxtaposed and glued together and extend at right angles with respect to the plane of the metal 'Wool layer 12 and the surface of the backing sheet.

FIGS. 4 and depict alternative modifications of metal wool corrugations, FIG. 4portraying a scouring pad having sinusoidal corrugations defined therein as at 28 FIG. 5 portraying intersecting corrugations at 30 and 32.

Whether the corrugations be of the straight parallel variety designated as 22 in FIG. 2, sinusoidal as in PEG. 4 or intersecting as in FIG. 5, they are all adapted to offer a plurality of reservoirs for effectively locating thereon a soap foam which can be displaced into the interstitial areas between the filament and the backing sheet.

In this connection it should be noted that the metal wool corrugations should offer not only means to trap a soap foam as it is applied to the steel wool layer but also should have their individual filaments extend in a mean direction generally perpendicular to that of the corrugations; In this way the unbonded portions of the undulating filaments will present a maximal number of scraping edges to the surface of the pot or pan to be cleaned.

A disposable scouring article like that shown in FIGS. 1-3 can be manufactured in accordance with the method depicted in FIGS. 6 and 7. This method generally involves unwinding an endless ribbon of metal wool 4i} and Backing sheet 10 is caused to pass beneath glue roll 44 communicating with a bath of adhesive 14. The ribbon of metal wool is caused to pass between a pair of oppositely corrugating rotating rolls 46, 48 to produce a corrugated ribbon 50. Corrugated ribhon'St) is united to the coated backing sheet 10 by passage between compression roll 52 mounted on table 54 and corrugating roll 46. Alternatively a pair of compression rolls may be used to join the corrugated ribbon to the backing sheet after the ribbon has passed through and left the corrugating rolls. The united composite corrugated layer 50 and backing sheet 10 is caused to travel into a suitable heating charnher to volatilize the organic solvents and set the adhesive resin preferably comprising the glue; this heating chamber is designated by infra-red bulbs 56 and the gas heat source 58.

The bonded composite continues to the next station where a soap foam stored in a suitable tank 60 is applied to the surface of the corrugated ribbon 50 through a suittable nozzle at 62. After application of the soap foam it is desirable to employ a doctor blade 64 or other suitable means to smooth out the soap foam and and cause it to occupy not only the valleys 20 but the interstitial voids between'the filaments. Finally, the soap foam-im pregnated composite is introduced to a second heating chamber designated by the infra-red bulbs 66 and the gas heat source 68 which serve to drive olf the moisture from the foam. The composite of the backing sheet 10 and the, layer 12 is wound up on take up roll 70 whereafter it may be cut into articles of suitable length and width.

The article of the present invention provides a rapid and uniform lathering of the soap localized in the matter metal wool. It appears that when a soap foam is dried after having been deposited on the aforesaid structure a more or less continuous dried cellular soap body is produced which is intimately associated with the bonded filament so as to offer a highly elfective lubricating as Well as detergent action when the disposable scouring device is moistened. The article is relatively free of troublesome powdering which might otherwise occur in attempting to incorporate soap in any form onto a disposable pad having the open porous structure of ordinary metal wool.

ter the soap foam has been applied to the corrugated ribbon 5i it is readily displaced into the interstitial void spaced located between filaments under the pressure of one or more rolls or doctor blades. By virtue of its light, aerated condition, the soap foam will float in the valley reservoirs as com-pared to liquid soap which will migrate through the fibrous walls of the compacted matted metal wool layer. As a result, instead of being relatively inaccessible to the moisture which serves to lather the soap, the soap is located inan exposed area where it offers a more rapid lathering effect. Due to the cease in which lathering is accomplished less soap is wasted in attempting to develop a lather with the result that there is more effective use of the soap and metal wool resulting in economics in the levels of soap and the quantity of metal wool, such as steel wool, required to perform a given scouring and polishing function.

Concerning the method of the present invention, it is now possible on a practical commercial scale to employ continuous rolls of ribbons of matted metal wool and backing sheets and to apply a continuous stream of soap foam uniformly to previously bonded filaments. The continuous, corrugated filaments offer a controllable manner of locating a soap foam with respect to the undulating filaments. As distingushed from prior art techuiques of incorporating a soap composition into a dense matted metal wool structure, which techniques employed -a liquid soap and consequently required expensive drying equipment, the method of the present invention places less demands on the needs for drying capacity and pad forming machines. This is due to the fact that a ribbon of corrugated metal WOOl can be relatively less dense compared to the ribbons of metal wools employed in prior art scouring pads and by virtue of the aerated condition of the soap foam occupying this less dense ribbon there is less moisture to be removed from the article in drying. What moisture is present is more readily removed at lower cost in terms of drying equipment, processing time, and high temperature air, the latter being a most costly factor in the production of all soap impregnated scouring pads as practiced heretofore.

While the present invention has been described with particular reference to specific examples, it is not to be limited thereby, but reference is' to be had to the appended claims for a definition of its scope.

What is claimed is:

l. A disposable scouring device comprising a backing sheet, a layer of matted metal wool filaments adhesively bonded to said backing sheet, said layer having the filaments therein formed into a series of peaks and valleys presenting an uneven abrading surface, and a dried soap foam incorporated into said layer of metal wool filaments occupying said valleys and filling interstitial voids between said matted filaments.

2. A scouring device according to claim 1 wherein the filaments in said layer extend in a mean direction normal to the mean direction of said peaks and valleys.

3. A disposable scouring device comprising a backing sheet, a layer of matted metal wool filaments having said filaments extending in one mean direction, a series of corrugations in said layer of metal wool filaments extending in a mean direction transverse to said first direction and presenting an uneven abrading surface, a flexible water insoluble adhesive composition laminating said layer of metal wool filaments to said backing sheet,

and a dried soap foam incorporated into said layer of metal wool occupying said valleys and filling interstitial voids between said filaments.

4. The method of producing a disposable scouring device which comprises contacting a layer of matted metal wool filaments with a backing sheet having a flexible water insoluble adhesive composition applied thereto, said layer having a series of peaks and valleys formed therein and presenting an uneven abrading surface, applying a soap foam to said layer of filaments so that it occupies the valleys therein, applying pressure to said foam to cause a portion thereof to penetrate interstitial voids between said filaments, and drying said foam.

5. The method of producing a disposable scouring device which comprises corrugating a ribbon of matted metal wool filaments to form alternating peaks and valleys therein, said ribbon having its filaments extending in one mean direction and said peaks and valleys extending in a direction transverse to said first direction, contacting said corrugated ribbon of matted metal wool filaments with a backing surface having a flexible water insoluble adhesive composition applied thereto, applying a soap foam to said filaments so that it occupies the valleys therein, applying pressure to said foam to cause a portion thereof to penetrate interstitial voids between said filaments, and drying said foam.

6. A disposable scouring device comprising a backing sheet and a corrugated layer of matted metal wool filaments extending in a mean direction approximately normal to the corrugations of said layer, the external filaments on one side of said layer next to said sheet being adhesively joined thereto along top portions of said corrugations, the filaments throughout the greater part of the thickness of said layer forming a flexible and distortable mat extending over substantially the entire area of the device and having an outer corrugated working surface when undistorted, and a dried soap foam disposed in the depressions of said outer corrugations and in interstitial voids between said matted filaments.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,606,884 Mann et al. Nov. 16, 1926 1,990,009 Stiles Feb. 5, 1935 2,240,135 Field et a1 Apr. 29, 1941 2,287,801 Hepner June 30, 1942 2,308,405 Tully Jan. 12, 1943 2,308,568 Rogers Jan. 19, 1943 2,483,135 Goldsmith Sept. 27, 1949 2,849,737 Piccinini et a1 Sept. 2, 1958 

1. A DISPOSABLE SCOURING DEVICE COMPRISING A BACKING SHEET, A LAYER OF MATTED METAL WOOL FILAMENTS ADHESIVELY BONDED TO SAID BACKING SHEET, SAID LAYER HAVING THE FILAMENTS THEREIN FORMED INTO A SERIES OF PEAKS AND VALLEYS PRESENTING AN UNEVEN ABRADING SURFACE, AND A DRIED SOAP 